The Puppets of Spelhorst

“There he was, a man without family, a man without children or grandchildren, a man utterly devoid of whimsy or wonder, staring at a toy store window, bewitched entirely by puppets.”

This moment serves two literary purposes. First, it develops The Importance of Community in Hard Times, though its full significance only becomes clear in retrospect. Just as Spelhorst once left to tackle life on his own, he tries to buy the girl puppet on her own instead of as a group. This time, however, community prevails: Spelhorst is not given a choice and is forced to buy the puppets together, so they get to embark on a journey together. Secondly, this serves as the inciting incident in the book: Even though the puppets don’t know it yet, this is the beginning of their story.

“But the heart, the heart is a mystery.”

The tailor and his wife cannot understand what an old man would want with the puppets. The tailor dismisses Spelhorst, but the tailor’s wife knows that there must be more to his story than meets the eye. She is the one who weeps for the old man when he dies, seeming to sense that he once loved and lost.

“I have always remembered his words because it was a beautiful song and my heart did feel broken.”

Songs are an important motif throughout the book, but the character that is most impacted by them is the king. This moment introduces the significance of songs to the king and supports the theme of The Transformative Power of Stories. Songs are a type of story, especially in this book, and they have a deep emotional impact on the characters.

“What the owl did not say was that when he saw the bird, he had felt something rise up inside of him—a joy and a despair that he had no words for, no words at all.”

Each of the puppets has a longing deep inside of them. The owl wishes to fly like the bird he once saw. The bird symbolizes the call to adventure that all the puppets feel and that Spelhorst felt when he was young and left Annalise behind. Although the novel frames the latter as a mistake, it does not suggest that the characters are wrong to dream of great things; the owl, for instance, ultimately gets to live his dream of flying.

“This design, one reaching for the other but never quite meeting, repeated again and again, over and over.”

When the wolf has her two teeth torn out by Martha, she is left on the patterned rug described in the quote above. This pattern evokes the old man and Annalise: how they connected but never ended up together, and how no matter where life took them, they never forgot each other.

“Now the girl puppet sat on the mantel and stared straight ahead. She could not see the king or the owl. She did not know where the boy and the wolf were. She felt, inside of her, a terrible emptiness.”

The Puppets of Spelhorst greatly emphasizes the importance of community. While each of the puppets has their own heart’s desire, they realize once they are separated that the only thing that they want more than these things is to remain together.

“Nonsense, it is. All of it. Nonsense coming and nonsense going, and nothing but nonsense in between.”

Jane Twiddum, the maid who takes care of Emma and Martha’s home, says this phrase a few times throughout the book. It highlights this character’s practical nature and her related struggle to see much purpose in her life. At the end of the book, however, she changes her mind about what’s “in between” birth and death and decides to spend her time seeking the adventures of which she always dreamed.

“It was all just words, nothing but words—words and words and nothing happened until suddenly you were mistaken for a feather duster.”

The owl is wise and knowledgeable but becomes bitter about these qualities when Jane mistakes him for a feather duster and drops him in a bucket. However, Jane later realizes her mistake and even fulfills the owl’s greatest dream by helping him to “fly.” This suggests he was wrong to lose faith in the power of words; indeed, they are central to his role in the play.

“And even though nothing was as it should be, even though the king and the girl were powerless and stuck atop a mantel and separated from the ones they loved, a small peace descended over the blue room.”

When the king grows fretful over the missing puppets, the girl puppet sings to him to comfort him. This moment demonstrates the healing nature of songs and stories and how people cling to them in times of distress. The song reminds the king and the girl that they still have each other, even if the rest of their friends are missing.

“The wolf hadn’t thought she would miss the other puppets, but she did.”

The wolf prides herself on being ferocious and independent, so it comes as a surprise when she finds herself missing her friends. At this point in the book, she has had two teeth plucked from her and has been left alone on the carpet by Martha. Once alone, she isn’t as tough as she thought she would be, which reinforces the book’s message that life should be lived in community with others.

“The mother fox did not speak, of course. But she made her opinion very clear. This is a worthless thing.”

The wolf has just adjusted to being in the fox den with the kits when the mother fox throws her out. The wolf had been missing her friends, and even though she didn’t like being a toy for the kits, she appreciated being around other living beings for a while. She loses even more hope and confidence in herself when the mother fox throws her into the snow and feels the full weight of being viewed as a “worthless thing.”

“I reckon it is never going to happen, though, that I sit on a camel’s back and see the world. But I thought I would show you the river. I thought you might want to see it all—good as you are at seeing.”

Jane Twiddum explains her dreams of sailing away to have adventures overseas to the girl puppet. She lacks faith that it could ever happen, but there is something about the girl puppet’s eyes that makes her admit she still wants a life of adventure, and her admission bears fruit. Part of the transformative power of stories comes from listening to them: The girl puppet is transformed by hearing Jane’s dreams just as much as Jane is transformed by finally saying them out loud.

“If one couldn’t be a king, surely a wizard was the next best thing. And he was in charge of the story! Just as it should be.”

The king has struggled to find his place in the story for the entire book. He is the only puppet who is not taken down from the mantel, and he is typically not addressed as or admired for being a king. When Emma tells him he will be a wizard, he is excited about the new role and has hopes of finally contributing to the story.

“The boy could see the faces in the audience staring at him. He felt just as he had when he was in the claws of the bird—wonder and joy coursed through him.”

The boy once assumed the greatness he was destined for involved embarking on a journey. Now, as he feels the power the story has over the audience, he realizes that he can achieve greatness in other ways, and alongside others, instead of going far away alone.

“And they were happy, the girl and the boy, beneath the great sky of the world. They were happy together.”

The author highlights that the boy and the girl (who represent the younger versions of Annalise and the captain) were happy together before the boy set off in search of glory, surrendering the greatness he already had in front of him. The language highlights that in remaining with the girl, the boy is not sacrificing a rich and meaningful life; the sky above them is still “great,” imbuing what looks like a simple existence with grandeur.

“I saw them, thought the girl. I am good at seeing, just as Jane Twiddum said. I stood beneath the moon and the stars, and I saw all those faces [of the audience members], each face.”

The girl puppet learns that she finds joy in being part of a story to entertain and educate others. Her ability to see goes far beyond the literal: She sees in real time the emotional impact Emma’s play is having on the audience. If the heart is a mystery, the novel suggests, stories help shed some light on it.

“You are happy here. We are happy together, and that itself is a great thing.”

The girl in the story is content with the life she shares with the boy. She tries to make the boy understand that he does not need to leave in search of greatness, for they have found it already, together. Like the girl puppet, she has a gift for seeing things as they really are, and she sees that their life is already great, adventurous, and beautiful.

“And so he did not heed the wise words of the owl. He did not listen, either, to the girl who loved him. He left.”

This is a critical moment in the story for the boy. He is told that if he leaves, he will regret it. He makes his decision and decides to leave anyway. This quote is tied to the theme of Love Without Regret. Ironically, the boy thinks he will regret remaining at home only to later find that he regrets leaving his love behind and not being contented with the life they had.

“He stood aboard his ship and felt nothing but sorrow—for he had left a place where he was happy and gone in search of something that he had never found.”

The boy’s belief that he was destined for greatness prevented him from seeing that there are different ways to define a great life. Nothing he found on his journeys could replace being with his love, just as for each of the puppets, getting to live out their dreams was unsatisfying when they were separated from each other. People (and in this story, puppets) are meant to experience life together, not alone.

“The old sea captain stood alone beneath the sun and the moon and the stars—alone of course, except for the hungry shadow, which was ever close by and waiting.”

The hungry shadow represents the deep ache of regret that Spelhorst felt. When writing the play, Emma uses this figurative language to personify the overwhelming grief she identified in the old man’s letter.

“From somewhere in the audience, there came the strangled sound of weeping.”

While the rest of the audience listened intently throughout, the weeping signifies a character who sees the deeper meaning in the story. This indicates that someone in the audience experienced the story on a much more personal level, foreshadowing the conversation between the old woman and Emma.

“I once had a love who went to sea in search of glory. I think of him still. I have never, ever forgotten him.”

It is revealed that the old woman weeping in the audience is none other than Annalise, the long-lost love of Spelhorst. She has the same violet eyes as the girl puppet, and like the girl puppet, she has the power of seeing things as they really are. She thus sees Emma’s story not just as a play written by a young girl but as a moving and inspiring piece of art.

“Stories without end—watching them unfold, being a part of their unfolding—what a blessing that would be.”

After spending so much time struggling to understand their purpose, the puppets have found it in the art of storytelling. The story of Spelhorst and Annalise was just the beginning, and they are excited by the prospect of sharing other stories that will move and transform audiences.